“How do I send you back?”

“Tired of me already?”

I nodded. “Before you even got here.”

Ira chuckled, and I saw that his tongue was as dark red as his hair. Nearly black. “All you have to do is swipe my name from the floor.” He leaned toward me, over the mess between us. Like he’d whisper a secret. “But you should know that I can end this appointment as well, so you may not want to truly anger me until you’ve gotten what you want from me.”

I had no intention of truly angering him. Ever. At all. Under any circumstances.

“So, what can I do for you today, Kaylee Cavanaugh?”

“Take me to my father.”

“Of course. The price is your immortal soul.”

“No.”

Ira didn’t look surprised in the slightest by my refusal. “This is not a negotiation, little fury. That’s the price for what you’ve asked for.”

“Well, I can’t pay it.”

“You can. But you won’t.” He frowned, staring down into my eyes, as if to confirm the statement he’d just made. “Fine. If the price is too high, ask for something less expensive.”

“I don’t suppose you’d bring my father back to the human world for me, alive and as unharmed as he is now, for anything less than my soul. Right?”

“That is correct. You’re taking this negotiation in the wrong direction.”

“I thought we weren’t negotiating.”

“We’re not negotiating a new price for your original request. But each task comes with its own price. Think smaller, unless you’re ready to pay a big bill.”

“Can you tell me where my father is right now? Do you know where Avari’s keeping him?”

“I do know, and I can tell you.”

“How much.”

“A taste of your anger.”

“A taste? What does that involve?”

“Just a kiss, little fury.”

“A kiss?” Eww! Seriously? “Does that mean the same thing in the Netherworld as it does here?”

What little I knew about kissing on the other side of the world barrier, I’d learned from Addison and Nash, who’d both kissed hellions as part of a business arrangement—an exchange of service for payment.

But for me, kissing meant Tod, and private moments, and delicious tingles deep down in my stomach and sometimes lower. Kissing meant sharing something vital and intimate with someone I loved with all my soul, and I had no intention of sharing that with anyone else, much less with a hellion.

“As far as I know,” he said. “But we’re not in the Nether, are we? Might that fact broaden our options a little?”

“No.” No way in hell. Chill bumps rose on my arms, and nausea churned in my stomach.

“I have a boyfriend.”

“I fail to see the relevance.”

I frowned. “He’s relevant because I love him. He’s the only one I kiss. I’m not going to hurt him.”

Ira’s eyes narrowed with impatience. “Human adolescent drama doesn’t appeal to me until it involves homicidal rage. Does your boyfriend have that kind of destructive potential?”

My frown deepened. “Are you asking if he’d kill you for kissing me?”

The hellion laughed out loud, a deep, creepy sound of malevolent amusement. “Killing me isn’t an option, though I suspect I would find the attempt highly entertaining. I’m asking if he would kill you.”

Over a kiss? “Skimming right over the fact that I’m already dead...no.” Nothing in the world—in either world—could make Tod want to kill me. He’d already proved that. But losing him because I’d kissed a demon might make my afterlife not worth living....

“Then this conversation is already starting to bore me. Make a choice. Your father’s location or your boyfriend’s ‘feelings.’”

“I’m not going to kiss you. There must be some other way.”

His dark brows rose. “It has to be a physical exchange, little fury. Perhaps you’d like to suggest an alternative method of connection?”

That nausea swelled into an all-out roil of disgust twisting inside me. “About this kiss...” Definitely the lesser of two evils—I hoped with all my heart that Tod would understand that, even as I hated myself for thinking it. “I need specifics. What kind of kiss?”

“My mouth and your mouth. And my tongue, of course. For that taste of your anger.” He leaned forward again and winked at me with one of his creepy red-veined black eyes. “I promise you’ll enjoy it.”

“I highly doubt that.”

“What’s your answer, little fury?”

“One kiss? Mouth-to-mouth? No biting or taking of any liberties whatsoever?”

“You’re a smart little thing, aren’t you?”

Only smart enough to know that everything has a price. A horrible, unthinkable, irreversible price. “I’ve learned to take nothing for granted.”

That time his frown looked truly irritated. “Remind me to thank Avari for that.”

“Take your taste. Then back the hell off.”

“As you like, little fury.”

My pulse raced in fear. My skin crawled at the thought of him touching me, and my heart ached at the sudden brutal understanding of what I’d agreed to. It took every drop of courage left in my veins to keep me from swiping my hand over the blood on the floor and running faster and farther than I’d ever gone in my life.